Renata Steffens
Bishop Martin Hayes with Archbishop Eamon Martin (Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland) as he takes his chair as Bishop of Kilmore.
Photo: John Mc Elroy Looking back at the Kilmore Diocese in 2024, Bishop Martin Hayes said they had significant events. “We had our pilgrimage to Lourdes. One of the features of it was that we brought some young people.” The young people who went on that pilgrimage raised the money to go, the bishop said. “They raised over 17,500 in their own locality.
Another highlight for Kilmore Diocese in the past year was the visit of the relics of St Kilian from Würzburg in Germany. “There is a long-standing link between one of our parishes, Mullagh, going back 1,300 years when St Kilian and his companions, Totnan and Colmant, they went via Cork and Kerry, and via Rome eventually and they arrived in Würzburg.
“Unfortunately, they were martyred for their faith. To this day, the people of Würzburg in the Franconia region of Bavaria in Germany celebrate St Kilian… Some of our local community in Mullagh asked,” would it be possible to have the relics of the three Saints to visit Ireland.
Other 2024 highlights Bishop Hayes mentioned were the visit of the relics of St Bernadette and the visit of the relics of St Oliver Plunkett.
For the Bishop of Ossory Niall Coll, “as a new bishop, the highlight for me in 2024 was the slow work of my getting to know the people and clergy of the diocese. Thankfully, both people and clergy are welcoming and supportive, and I am happy to report progress on this front and a determination to press on in the years ahead.”
In the Diocese of Killaloe, 2024 saw “a very significant ordination in the course of the year, where we had a man who is a native of Ennis and he was ordained as a Papal Nuncio,” Bishop Fintan Monahan said. The diocese received the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin at Msgr Séamus Horgan’s consecration as Papal Nuncio to South Sudan at Ennis Cathedral, Co. Clare. “There were three cardinals on that particular day. It was a very joyful and happy occasion.”
This past year, Bishop Monahan and the Diocese of Killaloe have “been working hard on our latest Pastoral Plan, which was Together in Faith, Hope and Love… We participated in the Synodal Pathway process and that was very much appreciated by so many people, to have the opportunity to meet and put their views forward.”
Bishop Monahan said that “very central” to the good news in Killaloe Diocese in 2024 was that between 40 and 50 lay people have signed on for a second round of volunteer pastoral ministries. “We had 24 people who were commissioned two years ago, and this is the second round of that.” The bishop said they were “really pleasantly surprised to see” the number of people who signed up and had begun their discernment programme this year.